The Rangers might be exhausted; GM or Ron Washington to blame?

4/13

Richard W. Rodriguez/AP

STARTING PITCHER: Left-hander Joe Saunders will face the Rangers for the first time since July 23, 2010, while with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Saunders went 3-3 with a 3.63 ERA in seven starts after being acquired from Baltimore in August. In his last start, Saunders gave up three runs in 7 1/3 innings during a win against Boston on Sunday.

To say the Rangers don’t have the look of a team that could win three games in a row, much less make three consecutive World Series, is an understatement. The only back-to-back wins they had over a playoff team in the second half were against Detroit, and that was nearly two months ago.

The Rangers have played in fits and starts ever since for a variety of reasons. Because of season-ending injuries to Colby Lewis and Neftali Feliz, they’ve gotten little from fifth starters. The lineup hasn’t delivered from top to bottom as it has previously. Hamilton, David Murphy, Adrian Beltre and Elvis Andrus are up; Ian Kinsler, Nelson Cruz, Mike Napoli and Michael Young are down.

The Rangers aren’t as multi-purpose on offense as they once were, either. They don’t run as much because opponents have denied them with slide steps. When Kinsler and Andrus do run, it’s often ill-advised.

And if all the above still isn’t reason enough, consider the possibility that the Rangers are simply beat. Seven regulars are on the wrong side of 30, which may not seem old unless you were one of seven Rangers who played in at least 145 games this year, tying a major league team record.

Particularly notable: Of the nine other teams to have as many, only the ’84 Padres made the postseason.

One of Ron Washington’s duties is to make sure his players have something left at the end of a long, long season. He’s been reluctant to give days off, and I can’t always blame him. GM Jon Daniels hasn’t given him much bench to work with.

But even when Jurickson Profar and Mike Olt were made available, Washington didn’t take advantage. Like most managers, he’s not wild about rookies. If this season ends soon for the Rangers, you can bet it’ll become a topic of discussion.

Maybe not so coincidentally, Washington gave his guys the day off Thursday.

“We’ve been grinding,” he explained. “I just felt like they needed a break.”They got a bigger one than they could have ever imagined only 24 hours earlier, the way the postseason sets up.

All they have to do now is win one game to earn it.

Asked for the record if he liked this one-time playoff setup, Daniels smiled and said, “I’ll tell you tomorrow.”

The good news is that he still had a tomorrow to consider it. The way things had been looking lately, they were fast running out.

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